JP Morgan is losing two multibillion-dollar teams bought by the firm in its acquisition of First Republic after last year's regional banking crisis.
Merrill Lynch is recruiting a 12-person team in Florida from JP Morgan Wealth Management that manages $3.5 billion in client assets, while Citizens Bank announced it was acquiring a similarly-sized team with more than $5 billion in AUM based from San Francisco, also from JP Morgan.
The San Francisco team includes senior managing directors Rick Gordon and Hugh Beecher, as well as managing director Andrew Curto. Beecher and Gordon joined First Republic in 2015. Beecher had a multi-decade tenure in industry, including stints at Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse, while Gordon worked at Barclays and briefly at Lehman Brothers, according to their BrokerCheck profiles.
Last year, the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank began toppling dominoes across the banking industry, including First Republic. The latest bank was the second largest bank failure in US history and the fourth regional bank to collapse since the collapse of SVB in March.
Regulators briefly caught the First Republic flat before JP Morgan intervenedtaking on about $173 billion in First Republic loans, $30 billion in securities and $92 billion in deposits.
it it was quite a move for many advisers who had begun their careers in mass mediation before arriving in the First Republic, only to find themselves back within the walls of a wire (a 2023 WealthManagement.com The analysis found that 69% of First Republic advisors were joined by an electronic or major firm, including Ameriprise, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Raymond James and Credit Suisse, among others).
The acquisition also follows this week's news that Industry veteran Paul Casey would join Citizens from Morgan Stanley to become Head of Wealth Management starting in July.
Meanwhile, Merrill Lynch bought the Florida team led by Salvatore Tiano and John Smyth, which also included four wealth managers and six client associates. They are joining Merrill's Palm Beach Gardens office, led by Regional Managing Director Josh Moody.
A 16-hour drive up I-95 in Lewes, Del., a team of four set out from Merrill Lynch for Janney Montgomery Scott, a hybrid RIA and broker/dealer that oversees about $138 billion in client assets in end of 2023.
Operating as Shore to Shore Private Wealth, the quartet is led by Executive Vice President Michael Koppenhaver, manages $600 million in assets and reported a trailing twelve month profit of more than $3.7 million while at Merrill.
During a quarterly earnings call Last week, Bank of America said the decline in advisers fell to Merrill, but did not provide a headcount. The company reported that it had employed 18,916 advisers at the end of 2023, after a net gain of about 175.
At the end of the first quarter, Merrill Lynch advisors were overseeing approximately $3.3 trillion in client assets, including about $1.4 trillion under management. This is an increase of $300 billion and $100 billion, respectively, compared to the same period a year ago.